HISTORY'S LARGEST LABOR FLOW: UNDERSTANDING CHINAS RURAL MIGRATION Inside China's Cities: Institutional Barriers and Opportunities for Urban migrants By FENG WANG AND XUEJIN ZUo* One of the most glaring legacies of 20th- than 5 percent in the early 1980,s to 21.7 pe century Chinese socialism is a sharp and wid- cent in 1993( Changming Sun, 1997). In Bei ened divide between China's urban and rural jing, the number of migrants was 3. 29 million areas. Chinas widened urban-rural divide in 1994, compared to a locally registered pop- arose from a socialist industrialization process, ulation of 10.63 million for the whole munic which created a hastened heavy-industrial ipality, and 6 million for its city districts base at the expense of its rural population. (Dangsheng Ji et al, 1996 p 95 China s vast rural population not only endured tricts, one out of every three persons in Beijing a standard of living far below that in the urban is a temporary migrant from elsewhere. Most sector, they were also denied access to many of these recorded migrants are also genuine social welfare benefits and social-mobility op- migrants, not short-term visitors: more than 60 ortunities(Martin King Whyte, 1996). This percent had stayed for more than half of a year, urban-rural gap in social and economic well- and only 17 percent had been in Beijing for being, together with a massive reservoir of less than one month. Three-quarters of all the rural surplus labor and an acute shortage of surveyed migrant population listed business or consumer goods, formed the driving forces for employment as their purpose of stay (Ji et al Chinas change of migration-control policy 1996 pp 96-97) and for the rapid increase of rural migrants in Rural migrants account for over three Chinese cities quarters of all migrants in large Chinese cities Though the exact number of migrants is still In Shanghai, for instance, a survey in 1995 hard to ascertain, due to both a lack of con found that 88. 1 percent of all migrants had sensus in the definition of migrant and the ab- their place of household registration in the sence of an authoritative national survey, countryside (Wang and Zuo, 1997). Simi- migrants prominent presence in Chinese cities larly, in Beijing, where one expects to see a is hardly disputable. In Chinas largest cities, higher circulation of urban to urban migrants for instance, it is often quoted that at least one close to 80 percent of migrants surveyed in late out of every five persons is a migrant, and most 1994 were peasants before moving into Bei likely a migrant from rural areas In Shanghai, jing(Xiuhua Liu, 1996 p 112) the number of migrants rose tenfold in one de- cade: from 0.26 million in 1981 to 2.81 million in 1993. The percentage of local residents who L. Rural Migrants in Cities were migrants correspondingly rose from less These large streams of rural-to-urban mi gration have undoubtedly by and large bene Loren Brandt, University of Toron. fited both migrants and the sendir receiving areas. The survey in Shanghai, for instance, reveals that rural migrants on average 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92612 at least double their income by their move hai Academy of Sciences, 622/7 Huaihai Wang and Zuo, 1997). However, a large and Shanghai, 200020 China consistent gap persists between rural migrants 276